Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-12-01
WORSHIPPING THE DEVIL.
Hideous Rites and Rituals of the HinduStan
ese-Witchcraf6 Galore.

Hideous Rites and Rituals of the Hindustan-
ese-Witchcraft Galore.
In no part of the world at the present
time is the belief in demonology, or devil
lore, and witchcraft so widely prevalent
lands Eastern Empire, says writer IN
the San Francisco Examiner. Through
the length and breadth of Hindustan
worshippers of the devil are to be found,
forming numerous sects whose doctrines
are essentially similar, whether they in
habit the Coromaudel coast, the High
lands of Central India or the borders of
Afghanistan. Between these widely
divergent points of the great Indian Pen
insula there cannot have been for ages,
if there ever had been, much intercom-
munication of the people, who are in
many instances ethnologically different
and speak language entirely foreign to
each other.
The fundamental doctrine of the devil
worshippers' creed, as gathered by the
writer in conversation with members
of the sect in various parts of Hindustan
is that it is improper, if not actually
blasphemous. for human beings to offer
prayer or sacrifice to propitiate divini-
W WuOoO B1SIOlI III duO III OShiS
ty is inconceivably beyond all his other
attributes, and who could not, even if he
would, do aught that is inimical to the
present or future happiness, spiritual or
material, of beings created after his own
image and loved with an undying and i'm
measurable love. With all the subtlety
of thought and illogical mental cunning
incidental to the oriental intellect, they
10 L.
aginative language the grounds on which
are based the reasonlngs that warrant be-
lief in their creed. To the devil, as the
mnipotent incarnation of evil they at
tribute essentials which are plausibly
advanced to give color.to the doctrines
of their sect. Shaitan, as Satan is named
in Hindustan, is, according to his wor-
shippers, Unfortunately egotistical, and
they, with the hope of gaining his good
favor in their behalf, fiatter him by the
most elaborate ceremonials and fervid
prayers, conducted with all the surround
ings Incidental to Eastern pageantries,
religious and otherwise.
The ritual of devil-worship, as we'll as
the tenets of the creed, modify consider
ably, according to the varying conditions
climatic and geographical, which OBJ
tain from the perpetuallys now-clad Him
asayas to the torrid regions of Cape Com
orin and along to the equatorial line.
The doctrine of devil worship is not con-
fined TO the low or illiterate classes of the
people. It prevails more or less extern
sively among those oriental intellectual
dreamers who read the institutes of Manu-
in the original and discuss abstruse theo-
logical and metaphysical theories in San
scrit. To the mind of the WHY Hindoo
and the bodily effeminate, but mentally
active followers of the Prophet, occult
teachings of the most visionary school
have always had an irresistible fascina-
ton and the spread of European civiliza-
ton and the introduction of the English
educational system has increased rather
than diminished the oriental fondness for
semi-c0natose speculation in the realms
OF religious thought.
WitchcrafU also predominates to an ex-
traordinary extent among the ignorant
classes, which means nine-tenths of the
population, and the entire social life both
of Hindoos and Mussulmans in the mo-
fused country IistriCUs Is strongly Inn
pregnated with the doctrines of devil
worship and belief in witches and witch
lore and all the superstitions which sur
round the recognized profession of the
black art. Necromancers and adopts in
divinatiOn are numerous, and their per-
sons are held as sacred and their super
natural powers are acknowledged by the
people as if they were recognized teach
ers of the religion of Brahma or Mollaho
expounding the laws of the Koran.